The Angels are giving away Randal Grichuk, Lucas Giolito, Hunter Renfroe and others for free
7 months ago
Think of it as the final nail in the coffin of Shohei Ohtani’s time as a member of the Los Angeles Angels.
On Tuesday afternoon, ESPN’s Jeff Passan broke the news that the Angels are essentially giving away outfielders Randal Grichuk and Hunter Renfroe, along with bullpen arms Matt Moore and Reynaldo Lopez and prized trade deadline acquisition Lucas Giolito.
“The Los Angeles Angels have placed starter Lucas Giolito, relievers Matt Moore and Reynaldo López, and outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk on waivers, sources tell ESPN. Huge potential playoff implications: All can be claimed by teams for free on Thursday.For the Angels, this will be a pure salary dump. Because there are no longer any August trades, all they will get from the transactions is salary relief. Teams that claim the players will need only pay their salaries for the rest of the season.Who gets the players will be determined by reverse order of record. The team with the worst record that puts in a claim on a player will receive him. And there are going to be plenty of claims put in from playoff-caliber teams that need a starter, bullpen help and bats.”-Jeff Passan, ESPN
After months of speculation as to whether or not the Angels would move pending free agent Shohei Ohtani at the trade deadline, the Angels, just a few games out of a Wild Card spot at the time, decided to keep Ohtani and instead go all in on making a push for the postseason. The Angels acquired starter Lucas Giolito and reliever Reynaldo Lopez from the Chicago White Sox along with CJ Cron and Randal Grichuk from the Colorado Rockies ahead of the MLB’s August 1st trade deadline.
Those acquisitions have not panned out for the Angels, as the club has a 7-18 record so far in the month of August, and kicked the month off with a seven-game losing streak that ultimately killed their surge back to the postseason before it could even begin.
Giolito has a 0-4 record with an ERA of 7.24 and 29 strikeouts through five appearances as an Angel, two of which were quality starts.
With a .135 batting average and just two homers, six RBI and five runs scored in 25 games this month, Grichuk hasn’t really panned out for the Angels either despite being one of the hottest players in the league during the month of July. The Angels acquired Grichuk on July 31st.
We’ll have plenty of Toronto Blue Jays-centric reaction to the players who have hit waivers coming soon, so keep it locked on bluejaysnation.com!
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